VARIOUS SMALL FIRES borrows its name from the artist Ed Ruscha's conceptual book, "Various Small Fires and Milk self-published in 1964. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he created a series of small photo-conceptual artist's books which featured mundane subjects and photographs of fires with deadpan titles. Various Small Fires exhibition is inspired by the liminal moments of the everyday that are ignited through the eyes of the artist storytellers.

In the spirit of Ruscha, Maira and Alex Kalman also created a small, limited-edition book called “Women Holding Things,” which featured select recent paintings by Maira, accompanied by her insightful and deeply personal commentary. Artists in Various Small Fires similarly lay bare the essence of people’s lives—their tenacity, courage, vulnerability, hope, and pain. What are things we hold dear—as well as those that burden or haunt us? The weavings, quilts, paintings, ceramics, and drawings celebrate life and the act and art of living. The artists Orville Brown Mary Burkhardt, Melissa Campbell English, Lucy Copper, Amber Esner, Jenny Mendes, Jason Milburn, Chen Peng, Nell Simons and Mary Ann Tipple all offer their unique ways of examining and understanding all that is important in our world—and ultimately within ourselves.